Pages from History: 4 October, 1836 – Abraham Malpan ends Maramon ‘Muthappan’ Festival
Image from maramonmarthomachurch.com
5 October, 1836: Malayalam Year 1012 Kanni 19: Members of the Mar Thoma Maramon Parish used to celebrate the festival of “Muthappan” every year.
Muthappan was a wooden idol in the shape of a human, made in memory of a foreign Bishop who came to Kerala in AD 1685. Offerings and prayers were conducted in front of this idol. The people of Maramon believed that the cause of all their prosperity and blessings was because of this semi-god, Muthappan.
Large crowds used to attend this yearly festival, which was a good source of income for the Maramon Parish. On 4th October 1836, the day before ‘Muthappan Festival’, the reformer of the Mar Thoma Church, Abraham Malpan threw “Muthappan” into the well situated in the Church compound and put an end to this festival forever, starting the reformation process.
Pages from History: 27 September, 1976: Juhanon Mar Thoma Metropolitan passes away
Metropolitan Juhanon Mar Thoma (Photo credit: LIFE magazine)
27 September, 1976: Juhanon Mar Thoma Metropolitan Passes away. (b.7 Aug.1893) .Dr Juhanon Mar Thoma was the Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church from 1947 to 1976. He provided the Church with the emblem having the motto: “Lighted to Lighten”. This has been appreciated by many leaders of Christian churches.
“Ecumenism was a reality for him; he restored peace with the Indian Orthodox Church. He actively participated in ecumenical councils such as the World Council of Churches. In 1948, he led the delegation to the first Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam. At its second meeting at Evanston, Illinois in 1954 he was elected as one of the presidents of WCC. During the third Assembly in New Delhi in 1961 he was the chairman and guided the deliberations with distinction.
It was in 1974, it was decided enter into full communion with the Churches of South India, North India and with various provinces in the Anglican communion.” ~ wikipedia.com
On 26 June 1975 the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi declared Emergency. Juhanon Mar Thoma was the only Christian leader in India who raised a voice and sent a letter to the Prime Minister arguing for the restoration of democracy.
Dr Radhakrishnan, vice-president of India (right) greeting Bishop S. U. Barbieri, Metropolitan Juhanon Mar Thoma and Archbishop Iakovos during the Third Assembly of the WCC in New Delhi, November 18 – December 6, 1961. (Photo from the Archives of wcc-coe.org)
The six new elected Presidents of the World Council of Churches (1954).
Standing, left to right, the are Bishop Dibelius of the Evangelical Church of Germany, Bishop Barbieri of the Methodist Church in Argentina, Metropolitan Juhanon of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, India, the Very Rev. John Baillie of the Church of Scotland, Bishop Sherril of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the U.S.A.
Seated, left to right, Bishop bell of the Church of England (Honorary President), Archbishop Michael of the Eastern Orthodox Church in North and South America. (Photo from the Archive of wcc-coe.org)
Pages from History: 17 September 1917, Birth of M. E. Cherian
17 September, 1917: Birth of M. E. Cherian, author of “Anugrahaththin Adhipathiye”.
Cherian was the son of Kuriannoor Thannikkapurathuttu T. M. Easow (Kunjachen Upadeshi) and Ayroor Kanjeettukara Panamthottathil Aleyamma. At the age of 9 he accepted Jesus as his personal saviour. He taught at the Noel Memorial School in Kumbanad for a few years, and from 1943 onwards he started full time gospel work.
He has written more than 300 hymns and 13 books. Hymn nos. 92, 93, 94, 95, 233, 236, 238, 239, 241, 245, 248, 304, 364, 365, 379, 385, 386 and 409 in the Mar Thoma Syrian Church Hymn book (Kristheeya Keerththanangal) are written by him.
He was called to his eternal home on 2 October, 1993 while he was on a gospel trip in Muthukulathoor Village near Madurai in Tamil Nadu.
M. E. Cherian
Pages from History: 14 July, 1947, Punchamannil Mammen Upadeshi passes away
14 July, 1947: Punchamannil Mammen Upadeshi passes away. Mammen Upadeshi was born in the Vadasseri house of the Punchamannil family in Maramon on 25 Nov.1868, as the son of Mathai and Achiyamma.
Mammen’s elder siblings all died while they were still infants. So Mammen was baptized at home when he was very young by the Parish Priest Rev. Titus (Later Rt. Rev. Titus I Mar Thoma).
Mammen Upadeshi trusted the Lord like the Old Testament Prophet Elijah and lived like Elijah, spoke the messages of the Lord like Elijah, fought against evil forces like Elijah and even performed miracles like Elijah.
Punchamannil Mammen Upadeshi
Pages from History. 10 July, 1919: P.V. Thommy Upadeshi passes away
10 July, 1919: P.V. Thommy Upadeshi passes away. Thommy Upadeshi was born in a very poor family of the Kunnamkulam Mar Thoma Parish in 1881. After his basic education he became a teacher. But after few years of teaching he became a full time evangelist in the Mar Thoma Church.
Rev. C.M. Joseph, Vicar of the Kunnamkulam Parish encouraged him in his Gospel work. Titus II Metropolitan appointed him as evangelist in Trichur and Perumbavoor He was a blessed Hymn writer. In 1905 he published a Hymn Book “Vishudha Geethangal” comprising of 136 hymns.
His language is simple and even the illiterate persons can enjoy his hymns. The following hymns in the book Kristheeya Keerththanangal are written by him: 3 (3), 11(10), 12(11), 30(28), 56(56), 61(61), 67(67), 70(70), 71(71), 73(73), 96(96), 130(111), 35(126), 145(136), 243(221), 247(225), 286(286), 295(281), 345 (345), 351(351), 366(242), 368(251).
In 1919 there was an outbreak of Cholera in Kunnamkulam and many persons died. Thommy Upadesi volunteered to serve the cholera patients and was finally infected with cholera. He passed away on Wednesday 10 July 1919 at the age of 38.
Kristheeya Keerththanangal
Pages from History: 5 July 1415, Church burns John Hus
5 July, 1415: John Huss, Bohemian preacher and forerunner of Protestantism, is burned as a heretic in Constance, Germany. John Huss was a religious thinker and reformer. He initiated a religious movement based on the ideas of John Wycliffe.
His followers became known as Hussies. The Catholic Church did not condone such uprisings, and Huss was excommunicated in 1411, condemned by the Council of Constance. Hus was offered a chance to recant and declined with the words “God is my witness that the things charged against me I never preached. In the same truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached, drawing upon the sayings and positions of the holy doctors, I am ready to die today.” He was then burned at the stake, and his ashes thrown into the Rhine River.
Jon Hus being burnt at the Stake.
Janíček Zmilelý z Písku – Jena codex
Pages from History: 1 July 1899, Formation of The Gideons International
1 July, 1899: Three travelling businessmen met in a YMCA building and decided to form an organization to distribute Bibles. The Christian Commercial Men’s Association of America, later renamed the Gideon’s, placed their first Bibles in a hotel nine years later.
Gideon’s started their work in India in 1961. The 33rd annual convention of Gideon’s International (India) was held at Tiruvalla in May, 2002.
Gideon’s distribute complete Bibles, New Testaments, or portions thereof. They have placed 1.9 billion Scriptures and are on a mission to reach 2 billion.
The Gideons International
Pages from History: 27 June, 1880, Birth of Helen Keller
27 June, 1880: Birth of Helen Keller (d.1 June 1968) in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama, USA.
As a baby of nineteen months, Helen Keller was stricken with a severe illness which left her totally blind and deaf. Then Anne Mansfield Sullivan a English teacher came to teach her and there began that remarkable story of her development into a woman of great culture and spiritual insight.
Helen Keller devoted her life to helping blind and deaf-blind people. She appeared before US state and national legislatures and international forums, travelled around the world to lecture and to visit areas with a high incidence of blindness, and wrote numerous books and articles. She is known as a symbol of Hope for blind people across the world.
Miss Sullivan reading to Miss Keller, circa 1898 (http://www.afb.org)
Pages from History: 25 June, 1865, Formation of China Inland Mission
25 June, 1865: Formation of China Inland Mission. English Missionary J Hudson Taylor is the founder of the China Inland Mission. Its missionaries were not having any guaranteed salary. They never appealed for funds. They trusted in God for all their needs and they even adopted the Chinese way of dressing.
J. Hudson Taylor
(http://www.jameswatkins.com/hudsontaylor.htm)
Pages from History: 20-26 June, 1599: Synod of Diamper (Udayamperoor)
20-26 June, 1599: Synod of Diamper (Udayamperoor) was held under the president ship of Aleixo de Menezes, (25 January 1559 – 3 May 1617) the then Archbishop of Goa. One of the decrees of the synod about marriage reads as follows “No man shall be married hereafter, until he has attained the age of fourteen years at least, nor any woman before she is fully twelve.”
Archbishop Aleixo de Menezes (http://www.ibiblio.org)
Nalloor Library 